The invention relates to a chain with chain links of a welded round material, in particular round steel, in which the noses of successive chain links have, in the region of their contact points and viewed in the central link plane, supporting arcs with a radius of curvature R.sub.s which is virtually equal to half the diameter d of the round material, and in which the chain links have, at least at one point, an inner width b.sub.1 of the size of 1.1 times the diameter d of the round material.
Austrian Patent Specification No. 199,014 has disclosed a chain of the above type in which the supporting arc angle .alpha. is less than 180.degree., and preferably is 90.degree.. In this chain, the supporting arcs of the chain links merge via transition radii into parallel legs, the mutual distance of which is comparatively large. For several reasons, the known chain is not fully satisfactory. The first reason is that the supporting arc angle is intended to be of the order of magnitude of 90.degree.. This has the consequence that, when running over deflection wheels, in particular in the case of sharp angles between successive chain links, the support of the chain links in the region of the supporting arcs deteriorates, because the area available for force transmission decreases to an undesirably large extent. A further disadvantage of the known chain is the large inner width b.sub.1 of its chain links and the symmetrical structure of the latter, which does not take account of the stress conditions in the chain links.